A Celtic Chronology

1600 The Gowrie conspiracy in Scotland.

1601 The Battle of Kinsale where the Irish rebels and their Spanish allies who landed to assist them are defeated by the English with Irish allies.

1603 Accession of James I in England (Elizabeth I died).The union of the English and Scottish crowns.An historical note – James I of England was James VI of Scotland.

Episcopacy established

Surrender of O’Neill.

1607 The Flight of the Earls. The Earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnell and many lesser nobles leave Ulster for Spain. They hope to return with armies to push the English from Ireland.

AMERICAN CELTS

The Plantation of Ulster is established after the lands of the Earls and others are confiscated and awarded English and Scottish settlers.
Francis Maguire visits Jamestown, Virginia. He later writes a report about it and submits it to the Spanish.

1609 Irishman John Coleman is a member of Henry Hudson’s crew on the Half Moon. He is killed in a fight with Indians. The place where he was killed was known as Coleman’s Point, but is now known as Sandy Hook in New Jersey.

1613 Chichester’s Parliament, when it was learned the Catholics were the majority in the Parliament, 39 new boroughs were created among the Protestant areas to create a Protestant majority.

1618 The Five Articles of Perth in Scotland.

1621 Daniel Gookin, a wealthy Quaker merchant from Dublin, arrives in Virginia and helps to found the town of Newport News. Many believe the town’s name derives from Gookin’s hometown of Port Newce, County Cork.

1625 Symon Turchin, an Irishman, lands at Jamestown, Virginia. He arrives as Captain of the ship Due Return, when it is learned he is “affected with Popery” his forced by the Governor of Virginia to sail back to England.

1627 Charles I offered “The Graces.” These were limited civil rights for Catholics and other inducements in return for a large grant of money from the Catholics. The money was given, the “Graces” were forgotten.

1631 Roger Williams, a native of Wales, emigrates to Massachusetts. He later founds Rhode Island and the city of Providence (1635).

1632 Darby Field of Roscommon discovered and named the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

1633 Viscount Thomas Wentworth, later the Earl of Strafford, is appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland. His authoritarian approach to assert the authority of the crown alienate all of Ireland.

1635 John and Cornelius Sullivan, Patrick Norton, and John Kelly are all Irishman in the colony of Virginia.

1636 Fifty-six Irish men and women arrived in Barbados from Kinsale, Ireland. They were sold for 500 pounds of tobacco each.

1637 Anthony Brisket, of Wexford, was Governor of Montserrat. He probably more than anyone was responsible for a special Irish connection to Montserrat.

1638 Episcopy abolished by the General Assembly at Glasgow, Scotland.

First Bishop’s War in Scotland.

1639 Alexander Bryan of Armagh settles in Milford, Connecticut.

1640 Michael Bacon, from Dublin, settled on a grant in Woburn, Massachusetts.

1641 Native Irish, under Owen Roe O’Neill who returned from France, raised up in Ulster against the English and Scottish colonists and gain control of most of the province. General Preston of the Anglo Irish Catholics within the Pale led people of similar ilk to battle against the Earl of Ormond, who again fought for the Crown, at New Ross. Preston’s group was defeated. Preston was the nephew of Lord Gormanstown, a Catholic noble of the Pale.

1642 The rebellion grows and a “government” with the support of the Catholic bishops is set up in Kilkenny known as the Confederation of Kilkenny. The confederation declares for Charles I, who is beset with civil war, if he will grant concessions to Catholics.
The Presbyterian church is officially organized in Ireland.

1643 Negotiations continue through 1646 as Irish, English and Scottish armies maneuver across Ireland, accomplishing nothing.

1644 Daniel Gookin, son of the earlier Virginia settler, moved to Massachusetts where he served on the Governor’s Council, and was made a Major General.

1645 Teague, an Irishman, is in Yarmouth, Massachusetts.

John Anderson of Dublin is a resident of Beverwyck, New York.

The Battle of Philihaugh in Scotland.

1646 The Battle of Benburb where Owen Roe O’Neill defeated a Scotch and English army, larger and better equipped.

The “Ormand Peace”

1647 General Preston defeated again, this time trying to take Dublin from Cromwell supporter Michael Jones. 5,000 of Preston’s men are killed at Dangan Hill.

1648 The Battle of Preston in Scotland and the defeat of Charles I.

1649 The Earl of Ormond, a Butler, made peace with the Catholic Confederacy when Cromwell had Charles I beheaded. Ormond, who had assisted Jones in taking Dublin, tried to take it back and was defeated in the Battle of Rathmines.

After the execution of Charles I, the Catholic Confederacy is included in the downfall of Royalists forces for coming to terms with his successor.

Oliver Cromwell comes to Ireland and massacres the Irish at Drogheda and Wexford.

1649 First arrivals of those Irish Cromwell has “transported” to Barbados and later to Montserrat in the British West Indies.

1650 The Battle of Dunbar, Cromwell’s forces are victorious in Scotland.

1651 The Battle of Worcester, another Cromwell victory in Scotland.

1652 Cromwellian Settlement Act, wholesale dispossession of Irish from their lands mostly to veterans of Cromwell’s army. Thousand of Irish are transported to the West Indies as laborers. Since Cromwell’s arrival the population of Ireland is cut in half from about 1,460,000 to 610,000. This does not include 150,000 Scottish and English in Ireland.

In 1641, Catholics owned about 11,000,000 acres and Protestants about 9,000,000. In 1652, Catholics owned only 2,000,000 acres most all of it in Connacht.

1653 James Butler settled in Massachusetts, at his death in 1681 he was the largest landowner in what became Worcester, Massachusetts.

1657 Thomas Lewis from Belfast lived in New Amsterdam and became a protegé of the governor. His son later married the daughter of another governor.

1659 Know doubt you have heard of Zorro, the dashing hero who liked the Spanish ladies and to tweak the nose of Spanish authority in Mexico. The story is based on the life of an Irishman. He was an Irish gentleman of noble birth named William Lamport, born in 1615 in County Wexford. William left Ireland as a result of oppressive English rule. He worked for a while as a privateer, attacking Englishmen merchantmen of Cromwell’s Commonwealth. In 1643 he enlisted in one of the three Irish regiments in Spanish service to fight against the French forces in Spanish Flanders. He was commended for bravery and entered Spanish Royal service.

Assuming the name “Guillen Lombardo” he went to the Spanish colony of Mexico. Once in Mexico he developed a sympathy for the poor and native Indians. He lived amongst them studying astrology and their healing skills. For this he came to the notice of the Spanish Inquisition, which under the guise of religious “correctness” hunted out enemies of the King of Spain. William became the leader of the fledgling Mexican independence movement. His name occurs time and time again in reports of Inquisitors gathering information by torture of suspected rebels.
William also brought attention to himself with a series of steamy affairs with Spanish noblewomen, both married and unmarried. He became engaged to Antonia Turcious, a member of the nobility, but before he could marry he was arrested by the Inquisition and accused of conspiracy against Spain and its Most Catholic Majesty. He was jailed for 10 years, but escaped from his dungeon and emerged only at night to daub the walls of Mexico City with his name and anti-Spanish graffiti.

William was arrested in 1652 when found in the bed of the wife of the Spanish Viceroy of Mexico, Marquis Lope Diez de Caderyta. He was sentenced to 7 years imprisonment, at the end of which he was turned over to the Inquisition to be burnt at the stake as a heretic. In 1659 He was tied to the stake in Mexico City, but as the bundles of brush and wood were lit, he undid the ropes that bound him and strangled himself before the flames could reach him.

1660 Restoration of the English monarchy with the ascendancy of Charles II.

1662 Kinsale, Virginia founded by Irish settlers from Cork.

1663 The beginning of a series of economic acts from England aimed at subordinating the Irish economy to England’s.

1666 An Irish revolt on Saint Christopher Island in the British West Indies; Montserrat, too, had problems with the Irish population that were mostly domestics on English estates.

The Pentland Risings in Scotland

1669 Irish born Michael Kelly is given the responsibility of defending Rhode Island.

1670 Charleston, South Carolina is settled and used as a base to settle South Carolina. Irish immigrants play a large part. One of the ships bringing the immigrants was that of Captain Florence O’Sullivan. O’Sullivan’s ship arrived on Saint Patrick’s Day. Among his passengers was Michael Moran who came as an indentured servant, and later was a member of the Parliament of South Carolina. O’Sullivan was named Surveyor-General of the new province and commander of the militia. Sullivan’s Island in Charleston harbor is named for him.

1670 The Navigation Act was passed in England and excluded Ireland.

1671 Irishman William Stapleton was Governor of the Leeward Islands, which included: Saint Christopher, Nevis, Antigua, and Montserrat islands.

1672 Robert Pollock of Donegal and his wife from Derry arrive in Maryland. Their son, William, changed the name to Polk. He was the great-grandfather of President James K. Polk.

1677 Charles McCarthy of Cork, and 48 fellow emigrants founded East Greenwich, Rhode Island.

1678 About 100 Irish families sailed from Barbados to Virginia and the Carolinas.

1679 The Battle of Drumclog and of Bothwell Bridge in Scotland where the “Protestors”, “Conventors” or “Camcronians” of Richard Cameron were defeated.

1680 George Talbot, an Irishman, received a grant in Maryland which he named New Ireland, he subdivided the area into estates he called; New Munster, New Leinster, and New Connaught. The estates were settled by Irish immigrants.

The Sanquhar Declaration in Scotland where Richard Cameron declared Charles II deposed.

1681 Archbishop Oliver Plunkett of Armagh was executed.

Enactment of the Test Act.

William Penn was accompanied by an Irish couple on his first visit to Pennsylvania. Dennis and Mary Rochford of Wexford, Ireland stayed. Dennis was named a member of he Pennsylvania Assembly in 1683.

Welsh Quakers arrive in Pennsylvania.

1683 Reverend Francis Makemie of Donegal arrived in Virginia and organizes Presbyterianism in America.

Armenian Baptists from Radnoshire, Wales arrive in Philadelphia.

Thomas Dongan, who was born in Kildare in 1634, is Governor of New York. Previously he served as Lieutenant Governor of Tangiers. His administration was noted for; religious tolerance, the first representative assembly in the upper colonies, a charter of rights, and trial by jury. Dongan served as New York’s Governor until 1688. He chartered the cities of New York and Albany.

1684 Richard Kryle, an Irishman, was named Governor of South Carolina. Many Irish settled there during his term of office.

1685 James Moore was appointed as Acting Governor of Carolina, he also served as Chief Justice, and as Attorney General.

French Huguenots began to arrive in Ireland. This influx of Huguenots seeking a refuge in Ireland continued until 1705.

1687 James II became the Catholic King of England.He was James VII of Scotland.

Richard Talbot, Earl of Tyrconnell, was named Lord Deputy of Ireland. Talbot was one of the few survivors of Drogheda and an Irish Catholic.
Catholics are restored property and rights.

Three Letters of Indulgence (Scotland).

1688 Revolution in England to throw out the Catholic king.

In Massachusetts, Catholic Anne “Goody” Glover of Ireland who speaks Gaelic, and prayed in Latin is hanged as a witch for speaking in foreign tongues and making signs, such as the Sign of The Cross. She was one of the Irish slaves that escaped Barbados.

The first piano crafted in the United States was built by Irishman Benjamin Crehore in Milton, Massachusetts.

Charles Carroll was named Attorney General of Maryland. He was the grandfather of Charles Carroll, signer of the United States of America’s Declaration of Independence.

1689 James II arrives in Ireland and results in the siege of Derry which holds out for the arrival of William of Orange. James II summons a Parliament in Dublin, the “Patriot Parliament.”

The Williamite forces, led by William of Orange, made up of Danes, Dutch, French Hugenots, and English soldiers arrive to give James II battle.

The Battle of the Boyne is fought at the Boyne River where William of Orange defeats the Jacobite forces of James II. James leaves for France and the Irish continued the fight.

The Battle of Killiecrankie and of Dunkeld in Scotland where the Williamites were victorious over the Jacobites.

1689 One hundred thirty Irish servants rebelled and controlled Montserrat for King James.

1690 Irish trade with Newfoundland is firmly established. Many Irish men and women went to Newfoundland to work as servants. This begins an entry by the Irish to North America that broadens each year. Many Irish sail to Canada, because it was cheaper than sailing to the American Colony ports, and land either in the Maritime Provinces (Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Labrador, Nova Scotia or Prince Edward Island), Quebec City or Montreal, Quebec and then walk to the United States.

Presbyterianism was re-established in Scotland.

1691 Patrick Sarsfield held the land west of the Shannon, after the Williamites won the Battle of the Boyne, they were able to move against Sarsfield.

The Williamite forces defeated the Jacobites at the Battle of Aughrim, the surviving Jacobites under Sarsfield held out in the siege of Limerick.

The Treaty of Limerick whereby Jacobite forces were allowed free passage to France. The Irish who stayed were promised security in property, civil and religious rights. The departure of Sarsfield’s Irish Army for France is known as the flight of the “Wild Geese.”